Keep losing fish

In the grand scheme of things I'm still fairly new to tying panfish jigs and panfish fishing. Today I went 2/6. The 2 I got where a small sunfish and a half pound bass. The fish I lost all bit my jig and were on for about 2 seconds then I lost them. I was mostly fishing with a 1/32 ball head jig with a #6 matzuo sickle hook. I was using a 5'4" Fenwick Silverhawk UL mod. fast with 4lb fluorocarbon. From what they felt like all the fish I lost were fighting like 8-10 inchers. Both sunfish and perch.

I have a feeling it's my rod? Maybe my hook set? I just gave it a little "trout" hook set. Or maybe my drag was too high but I pretty sure I set it on the lower end.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Originally Posted by Ryandr

Maybe my hook set? I just gave it a little "trout" hook set.

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You don't need much of a hookset with those little hooks. You certainly don't need to "cross their eyes" like the bass pros do.

Ryan,

It would be hard to pinpoint the exact issue without knowing a little bit of information first. Were you bank fishing? Boat fishing? Casting and retrieving or vertical jig fishing? Casting a float? What bait were you using? Live bait? Soft plastics?

The reason for the questions can help determine what might be done wrong (if anything at all). Take for instance one particular lake that I fish. I cast 1/16th oz jigs tipped with a twister tail. I catch a ton of crappies on this lake with this setup but also lose a fair number of fish as well. Mostly, the fish that I lose are small blue gills. They usually only get the twister tail in their mouths. You fight them for a few seconds and they are gone. Primarily because the hook never reaches their mouths. Eventually, they will tear the twister tail right off the bait.

If you were casting a float, I would say that your rod is too short. Many times, a longer rod would be needed in order to take up any slack in the line and quickly set the hook when a strike is indicated.

If you were casting a retrieving a jig/fly combination (hair jig) it could possibly be the retrieve being too fast. I like to use a lift reel, sink repeat technique. I do this with soft plastics as well. As for vertical presentation, I don't attribute it to a hook set as much as I do a firm upward motion of the rod.

I will say this, there are days that I miss way more than I catch. Other days, they pound it and you don't have to worry much about the hook set. Today just might not have been your day. Heck, you might have done better than others. We call a lot of this as "short biting" fish. They don't tend to bite the whole jig combination but rather the tail of it. Oftentimes they will spit it out long before you knew they were there. The sunfish family are filter feeders. Hookups can be hard when they light bite.

I hope this helps. I would say that your issue today had more to do with the fish and less to do with what you were doing at the time.

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Originally Posted by wicklundrh

Ryan,

It would be hard to pinpoint the exact issue without knowing a little bit of information first. Were you bank fishing? Boat fishing? Casting and retrieving or vertical jig fishing? Casting a float? What bait were you using? Live bait? Soft plastics?

The reason for the questions can help determine what might be done wrong (if anything at all). Take for instance one particular lake that I fish. I cast 1/16th oz jigs tipped with a twister tail. I catch a ton of crappies on this lake with this setup but also lose a fair number of fish as well. Mostly, the fish that I lose are small blue gills. They usually only get the twister tail in their mouths. You fight them for a few seconds and they are gone. Primarily because the hook never reaches their mouths. Eventually, they will tear the twister tail right off the bait.

If you were casting a float, I would say that your rod is too short. Many times, a longer rod would be needed in order to take up any slack in the line and quickly set the hook when a strike is indicated.

If you were casting a retrieving a jig/fly combination (hair jig) it could possibly be the retrieve being too fast. I like to use a lift reel, sink repeat technique. I do this with soft plastics as well. As for vertical presentation, I don't attribute it to a hook set as much as I do a firm upward motion of the rod.

I will say this, there are days that I miss way more than I catch. Other days, they pound it and you don't have to worry much about the hook set. Today just might not have been your day. Heck, you might have done better than others. We call a lot of this as "short biting" fish. They don't tend to bite the whole jig combination but rather the tail of it. Oftentimes they will spit it out long before you knew they were there. The sunfish family are filter feeders. Hookups can be hard when they light bite.

I hope this helps. I would say that your issue today had more to do with the fish and less to do with what you were doing at the time.

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Thanks for the reply. I was fishing from the shore and using a hair jig I tied. My retrieve may have been too fast on the ones I missed now that I think back. I varied my retrieve from the pull back and sink and twitch and retrieve. I'm sure over time I'll figure it out but it never hurts to ask the help of fellow anglers.

Like I said, sometimes it depends on the day. Fast retrieve, slow retrieve, jerk, lift and lower... all have their place. Remember to let the fish decide what they want. You just have to keep it in your mind to change your retrieve if you are not receiving the desired results. And, some days, they just don't want to cooperate.

Let's see the jig. It could be your body is to far passed you hook. Sometimes this will cause you to lose fish .

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I've had good luck, when fishing small jigs, to suspend them under either a set or slip bobber, depending on the depth you're fishing. Once you figure out what depth the fish are at you can use the bobber to return your bait to that exact depth every time. I then swim the jig back with a slow lift, drop and reel, slow lift, drop and reel. Watch the bobber for anything that looks different, lots of times they just lay on it on it's side, others they swim it sideways, still others they slam it. Good luck, try different techniques and have fun with it.

You can always bend the hook gap open a tad to see if it helps .:twocents

Thanks for all the replies. I totally forgot to mention I was fishing for bluegills not crappie yesterday! So I'm guessing a smaller hook for bluegill?

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Originally Posted by eagle 1

You can always bend the hook gap open a tad to see if it helps .:twocents

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I second this advice. To me that hook size is a bit small. I open up most of my hook gaps with a pair of needle nose pliers.
I learned this from a guide in Mississippi because the fish are much bigger and I was loosing or missing strikes.
You won't believe some of the smallest crappie will inhale a 1/8oz jig with 0 size sickle hook, and a 2" tube! And you wonder how in the world they did it, then darn near kill them trying to remove it.

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Originally Posted by eagle 1

You can always bend the hook gap open a tad to see if it helps .:twocents

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That is exactly what I was going to suggest. Since I am strictly a jig fisherman, I have run into that issue many times over the years and making the gap a bit wider usually helps.

First thing I'd check, and I don't mean to disparage any of the other folks who replied here, is whether my hook is sharp. Sounds simple, but if I miss two fish in a row, I pull out the file and touch up the hook point.

Set the hook harder brother .......if you are losing fish it's most likely with that hook and set up you ain't getting good penetration ......that's my take and I use the same weight and hook size for all my jig pitching most of the time ....sometimes I go heavier weight but same hook size ......its amazes me regularly how lightly fish have been hooked when I get them in after setting the hook like I am trying to break something .....lots of line out there has lots of stretch

Sometimes they don't take the lure all the way in their mouth. just the way it is some days. When it's like that I sometimes downsize a little, like go from a 1/24 to a 1/64 jig with a #8 or 10 hook vs a #6. I too use sickle hooks and a #8 is about the size of a #6 in a regular hook so that my be part of the problem when they are in the hit and spit mood. If you use a light small lure they can suck it in easier when they are finicky. A power wiggler or crappie nibble helps them hang on and take the bait deeper also.

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Originally Posted by eagle 1

You can always bend the hook gap open a tad to see if it helps .:twocents

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That usually works for me.

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1/32 ball head jig with a #6 matzuo sickle hook

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Agree with Ketchn's idea: "sometimes I go heavier weight but same hook size".
Match bait size to hook size. Hook bend should come out at half or less of the body length, which may be of the total lure length or less.

What is the hook size? #8 is definitely too small for aggressive fish or fish you've made aggressive with the lure. #4 and #6 hooks have no problem hooking fish and are needed for certain body length ranges.

Sharpen the hook. A file is an angler's best friend.

I've never liked using sickle hooks. IMO they reduce the gap needed for good hook sets and I have a hard time sizing baits to them.

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5'4" Fenwick Silverhawk UL

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4lb fluorocarbon

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Sometimes short UL rods are too wimpy to set the hook soundly at long distances and I've found that spooling a casting distance (+ five feet) with light braid (8-10# test) solves the problem. Tie to the end, 2' of 6# test f/c line and hooksets will be more forceful and prevent fish from flipping off. Rod tip angle matters when fighting any fish - after a high angle hookset, I keep mine far and away from the hooked fish, to one side and then the other.

My short U/light action rods collect dust in my basement. Six foot or a bit longer medium action does fine for me and even small fish are caught with no problem.

One last thing. Hair is nice, but plastics sometimes bring out the beast in fish. I no longer use curl tail or shad tail grubs, preferring prong tails or my own thin, wide tail or no tail grub. The aggression level of the strike and ease of hook set much of the time depends on the bait used as well as the slowness of the retrieve.